Chemo Day 6

Fever, fever and more fever.

We thought that the fevers were dropping off but unfortunately night before last and last night he had a 102-103 degree fever. This morning another 103 fever. The doctors are becoming increasingly concerned as are we. The fevers were supposed to have gone away as the chemotherapy killed the cancer.

Every day they test his blood but so far no bacteria grows. Not to mention he's on two super antibiotics and the combination of the two should be killing just about every bacteria known to man.

So what is causing the fever? The theory is that it could be three things - fungal infection, the chemo itself, or the Leukemia. Hunter's white blood cells are down to almost zero (his white blood cells are essentially the Leukemia cells) so it seems less likely that the Leukemia is causing the fever. However, the fact that the chemo is working and indiscriminately killing all of his white blood cells leaves him nearly unable to fight infection. Bacteria and fungal infection is truly the riskiest part of the chemotherapy.

I will be surprised if they don't start treating him later today for fungal infection - because at this point I don't think anyone has a clear idea of the fever origin. The risks are too grave to wait and see. I don't know all the details and side effects of the fungal medicine but I get the feeling that it's going to suck.